MerseyGrey

Do you always leave the house by the same door when you go for a walk? Could you try having your partner leave the house by a different door? Or you could try driving to a favourite walking place and wait in the car while your partner walks Samson. I don’t have any experience of this behaviour although I do know that they are creatures of habit, and sometimes an alteration in their usual routine can break patterns for them. I’m sure you’re right that your partner and Sampson have bonded. But does he ever feed Samson? That might help to strengthen the bond even more and might help you out a bit more. I have a clingy boy as well but he will at least walk with my husband!

I make it fresh for every meal but you can make it in advance. I give two dry tablespoons (then rehydrated) per meal. The guidance for a large dog (44-88lbs) is 1-2 tbsp daily, so I have probably been giving Buddy too much! Thanks for getting me to check!

😂😂😂 there is another thread...’things you wished you been told when you got a greyhound’ and these would fit very nicely in there! It sounds like Ally is settling right in

Happy birthday Sweep! You’re a golden oldie! 😘😘

We’ve had some success with using ‘Feisty Fido’. It allowed us to train Buddy enough to distract him if another dog approaches him for a sniff. Occasionally, a Buddy may also join in the sniffing but generally he just stands and waits for the other dog to move away. It works less well if more than one dog approaches him, and hardly works at all if the dog is excited or runs at him. Having said that, we normally warn the other owner that Buddy may snap if their dog is too familiar with him and we prefer not to let him mix with other dogs - the training we gave just buys us a bit more time if we can’t avoid the other dog. He does behave differently with other greyhounds, and lurchers that have a greyhound face. He doesn’t like most herding dogs and can’t stand bully breeds - and this includes lurchers with faces like Staffies. He has been attacked twice by these types of dogs since we have had him so I don’t blame him. Good luck! I wish ours was a bit more laid back with other dogs but I definitely think that with Buddy it’s a part of his personality and we can’t train the grumpy old man out of him.

Buddy came to us with a claw that was growing upwards (not a dew claw) which he caught in his first week with us, and then again almost a year later. The second time he must have all but broken it off, and he must have knocked it again as we took him to the vet as it bled freely (initially we hadn’t noticed that he must have damaged it as there was not blood, but he was limping). If you take him to the vet, they may try and detach it if they think it won’t be too painful. They may just leave it, give Ally pain meds and see if it will fall off itself +/- some help from Ally. These were our two options and went with the second - Buddy must have lost his eventually when he was scratching after a wee or poo, without a peep from him. If you decide not to take him to the vet, you will need to keep an eye on him for signs of infection. If he’s limping he might need some pain relief, and visiting the vet might give you a bit more peace of mind. However I suspect they will not offer you much more.

I also agree. Let Jack dictate the pace while he’s settling in and until he works out that you are his protector. When he is confident with you things will change

You have such wonderful memories of Rocket, which hopefully helped to ease your hearts with time. He sounded like a real character!

I don’t think he will hold it against you. He might remember that this is a ‘treat’ that will be taken from him which might make him lick the dishwasher door/contents more quickly because he knows he’s going to be stopped, but that’s where the leave it training comes in. I’ve certainly done stupid things with mine as a newbie greyhound owner. It’s a learning curve for you both, and the more experience you have, the more the stupid leaves you!

The second picture: ‘make it stop...please’😍

do you think someone in the higher echelons of Subaru command is a GreyTalker or is it just that they have been monitoring your online content?

Hi! I’m not sure how feasible this is for you, but while one of you is home, is it possible to leave the back door open? And possibly have the human at home go out into the garden for a few minutes every now and then? Sometimes they take a while with new things/changes in routine, but having spent several weeks avoiding the new thing, they will then surprise you . If you can leave the back door open she might work out for herself that it’s not that scary, especially if she sees one of you going out there. Try not to encourage her out there, because the less you coax them, the quicker they do the thing you want them to do! This method worked for us when we had new steps put in our garden - put there to help Buddy on to the lawn which is about two feet higher than the patio. We put treats on the step, we called him up with cheery voices, and all sorts of other tricks, but he would not use the new steps until about three months after they were put in, and some time after we had decided to leave him to his own devices. All of a sudden, he was happily trotting up and down them as if they had always been there. As for walking her, could you try starting your walk with both of you, but one of you turning back quietly, maybe when she’s distracted by something else? Again, it’s going to take a bit of dedication on your part. In the short term don’t worry too much about her not getting enough exercise, and whatever you do, don’t let your frustration show! It’s easier said than done sometimes. You will get there!

I hope you’re both ok. Cleaning with warm water/very diluted saline solution should be enough for a scrape. If you’ve had her for a while you will know that she will probably lick, and lick, and lick...........the last scrape ours had, we tried to cover with a bandage but not matter what we did it slid down his skinny leg and he just licked it anyway. It healed pretty quickly. Just keep an eye on her licking anywhere else like it’s going out of fashion as this could highlight any other cuts you haven’t noticed yet. Do you know who the unleashed dogs belong to?

Our experience of sleep startle involves teeth, snarling, growling and a certain degree of fear that you might lose some prominent part of your anatomy - fingers, nose etc. With sleep startle, I was more worried about my own welfare than the dog’s as it became clear that my loveable, gentle boy could definitely take care of himself in a pinch. We also realised how well he could restrain himself when threatened because he has never bitten on these occasions (three in total, it’s worse when he’s very tired when he drifts off and we’ve learnt to give him a wide berth when he’s like this!)

This is why we adopted Buddy (who is still with us). We went looking for a German shepherd and came home with a greyhound! Buddy had been at the kennels for a few months, and when we waved some chicken through the bars to get him to come to us, he lifted his head, gave a big sigh and struggled off his bed with the air of someone who thought ‘why bother?’. He wasn’t very demonstrative so probably didn’t look like an exciting proposition, but all of his careers were sorry and glad to see him go which I think says a lot. He wasn’t our first choice but as lots of people say, you get the dog you need, which is not always the one you want. And we are so happy about that!

Great news! Take every win you can get!

I would err on the side of caution and have her sleep somewhere else. Don’t be afraid of trying her bed in your room again. Just because it didn’t work straight away that doesn’t mean that it won’t. You might just need to persevere for a few nights. Maybe you could try spending a bit of time in your bedroom during the day with her on her own bed and you on yours so she gets used to where she should be. You could also try her in the living room without the door shut. Closing the door (at any time) is one of the things that drives mine nuts because he can’t see what’s going on and he is a nosy beast. But they are all different so it’s just a case of seeing what works for you. Above all, don’t panic! This is new for both of you and you are still ironing out the wrinkles 😀 Did you use a cleaning agent without ammonia as this tends to attract dog to pee in the same place. We disinfect with Zoflora if we have an accident which is very good and also smells very nice.

But since you have a dog no one will question who the poop belongs to!

We use Olewo carrots and these have improved the consistency of Buddy’s poop but like your dog, he has firm stools at the start of his walk which becomes looser with each poop. We introduced a slippery elm supplement which has improved it a bit more but he’s still a bit loose, but he is also currently on antibiotics to rid him of a bug called Isospora which he has picked up from his habit of eating poo. So hopefully once his course of antibiotics are finished we will be able to assess better but I think for us we have to accept that this is how Buddy’s crap factory works. We also had him on a bland diet of chicken and rice which produced fewer and smaller poops, but they were still very soft (but that could have been his tummy bug).

Hi Torster, welcome to the club! I’m on my first greyhound (had him for about 2 1/2 yrs) and I definitely agree with the idea of getting yours into a routine. Start walking her at times you are planning to walking her from the start. If she really needs to go at other times she will pee and poop in the garden. If she’s your first dog there might just not be enough stimulating smells to entice her to go in the garden yet. It will take you a few weeks or months to get to know her quirks, but if yours is representative of the breed you might find that the more you try and get her to do something, the more she do the opposite (this is true of Buddy!). And as already stated, if you really don’t want her on the sofa/bed now is the time to make sure she knows. Tasty treats on her bed will make her happy to be there. I think the first few months are a steep learning curve but you will look back on it soon and wonder what you were so stressed about! She’ll be part of the furniture before you know it...

So sorry for your loss. He was a handsome boy

My thoughts are not as profound as you lot. I generally think about how I would spend my time if I won the lottery (which is, not working and stroking my dog. Occasionally baking treats for him and for me).

We got the results of Buddy’s stool sample yesterday so I thought I would close the loop on this post. The only thing they found was a Protozoa called coccidiosis/ isospora which when found in solid poop is generally ignored but is treated when it causes symptoms. We were asked if he still had symptoms, because if his diarrhoea had passed we could avoid treating him, or we could choose to treat him with a course of antibiotics (trimethoprim). He hasn’t had diarrhoea this week but yesterday morning he ate a lot of grass to make himself sick again so we opted to put him on the antibiotics. I’m not a fan of using antibiotics in general but I hope that this will clear his infection (we were warned that it might not). And then we just have to stop him from eating poop, which is the most likely source of his infection. The vet did suggest that this infection is usually seen in puppies and immunocompromised dogs, or dogs that live in conditions with poor hygiene. When we told her that he’s a poop eater she was satisfied that this was the likely cause. Just to be clear, we don’t really let him eat poo and are doing our best to discourage/train out this behaviour but on the few occasions when he has toileted in the house overnight with solid stool, I am pretty certain that he eats some of it. He also snaffles stuff on walks but short of using his muzzle (which we are reluctant to resume because of how he responds to other dogs when wearing it) all we can do is be vigilant. In related news, the slippery elm supplement has helped to firm up his poops generally so that all his droppings are easier to pick up, which is some cause for celebration! We bought some Chappie as recommended but haven’t used it yet, and we will just keep an eye on his waste in case it’s required. We’ve got it if we need it. Thanks to you all for your advice.

No, they delight in nettles and spiky bushes to rub against for sniffs and pees. I’m replanting a border in our garden and am purposefully looking for spiky things to go in it. Buddy did get stung by something recently and spent the latter half of his walk pawing his face, so I would respond by rubbing it. Then he gave up and just started rubbing his face on me when he wanted me to scratch his sting. My boy is adorable 😍

They are so contrary 🙄